Disability rights

2. Employment

It’s against the law for employers to discriminate against you because of a disability. The Equality Act 2010 protects you and covers areas including:

application forms

interview arrangements

aptitude or proficiency tests

job offers

terms of employment, including pay

promotion, transfer and training opportunities

dismissal or redundancy

discipline and grievances

Reasonable adjustments in the workplace

An employer has to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to avoid you being put at a disadvantage compared to non-disabled people in the workplace. For example, adjusting your working hours or providing you with a special piece of equipment to help you do the job.

Recruitment

An employer who’s recruiting staff may make limited enquiries about your health or disability.

You can only be asked about your health or disability:

to help decide if you can carry out a task that is an essential part of the work

to help find out if you can take part in an interview

to help decide if the interviewers need to make reasonable adjustments for you in a selection process

to help monitoring

if they want to increase the number of disabled people they employ

if they need to know for the purposes of national security checks

You may be asked whether you have a health condition or disability on an application form or in an interview. You need to think about whether the question is one that is allowed to be asked at that stage of recruitment.

Redundancy and retirement

You can’t be chosen for redundancy just because you’re disabled. The selection process for redundancy must be fair and balanced for all employees.